Six hundred psychologists trained to better support refugee children
With support from the French Government, UNICEF and the Armenian Association of Child and Educational Psychologists are providing specialized training for psychologists working with displaced children and their families.
- Հայերեն
- English
Psychologist Ashkhen Sargsyan’s professional practice has seen numerous cases, particularly after the conflict escalation in 2020 and the refugee influx in 2023—some memorable, some complex.
“We have worked with many children, helping to regulate their emotional states,” she says, from her office in Yeghegnadzor in southern Armenia. “Displaced children often face challenges in school and teachers frequently ask us to intervene. One case involved a girl who refused to attend. When we spoke with her, she revealed that seeing one of her classmates’ faces made her feel emotional and depressed because it reminded her of an officer at the checkpoint during her displacement. We worked with her for a long time to help her overcome this issue.”
Since January, with funding from the French Government, UNICEF has been implementing a training and support initiative to enhance the skills of 600 psychologists in Armenia, equipping them to work effectively with displaced populations. The programme includes three to five training sessions, held both face to face and online, with each session lasting up to three hours.
Sargsyan, who is among the psychologists participating, primarily works with victims of domestic violence and children. During the training sessions, she learned new relaxation techniques and breathing exercises. The training also covered key topics, including managing childhood trauma, strategies for coping with loss and grief, effective crisis interventions in educational settings, addressing children’s fears and principles of providing psychological support.
“When I started working with children and saw them applying the exercises at home, I realized the ripple effect it creates. The psychologist works directly with the child but teaching them just a few techniques allow them to pass that knowledge on to their family almost instinctively. Even schoolteachers noticed changes in how children and their families communicated,”
Sargsyan makes it a priority to attend every training session and conference, stating that her profession is constantly evolving and requires continuous learning. She describes the UNICEF programme as a lifeline and says it is particularly helpful in crisis situations where multiple problems can arise simultaneously. In these moments, she says, comprehensive guidance is crucial.
“The techniques I learned during training – such as art therapy for processing traumatic experiences, grounding and breathing exercises for managing stress, self-regulation through imagery, and similar methods – have achieved truly positive results,”
When over 100,000 people – including 30,000 children – fled to Armenia in 2023, Sargsyan says that many of them initially experienced denial as the first stage of trauma. Only months later did they begin to fully grasp the gravity of what had happened. Without knowledgeable specialists like Sargsyan to provide objective support in such cases, serious challenges can emerge.
“Some reactions in children following trauma can be very brief and resolve without intervention, but others can persist for months or even years,” Sargsyan explains.
During the initial denial stage, children and adults alike may refuse to acknowledge their feelings about the traumatic event, avoid social interactions or even lose the memory of specific details, a phenomenon known as freezing. Denial is then typically followed by re-experiencing, where children repeatedly recall the event, reenact it in their behavior or experience nightmares. Hyperarousal often comes next, marked by heightened sensitivity to stimuli and disruptions in sleep, eating habits and attention. These stages may give way to anger and feelings of injustice, before leading to sadness and negotiation. Finally, trauma resolution – the acceptance stage – occurs when the child embraces reality and has worked through all the earlier stages.
During the programme, Sargsyan not only deepened her understanding of how to address childhood trauma and crisis situations but also had the chance to consult with experienced professionals about specific cases.
“The individual and group supervision meetings were essential for me,” she says. “We discussed specific situations together with experienced professionals and jointly identified the most effective support mechanisms. This provided an opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge gained in the programme to real-life practice and better internalize it.”
One of the critical challenges in Armenian society is the need to prioritise mental health and psychoeducation. Another training participant, Rozalya, points out that mental health awareness is crucial not only for displaced individuals but also for local residents. She says this issue is particularly evident in the regions, where people can lack information, access to consultations and proactive outreach efforts, and there is a need to broaden the scope of psychological services, particularly by engaging with schools and kindergartens and promoting inclusiveness.
“I see that among the locals, there are also parents and children who need support,” Rozalya explains. “Therefore, working solely with narrow, targeted groups is not enough. Psychology requires systematic and more comprehensive efforts.”
Rozalya also underscores the importance of flexibility in a psychologist’s role. “A psychologist’s work is multifaceted. In some cases, a therapeutic approach is needed, but in others, the specialist must understand the social support system and provide referrals. Sometimes they must act as a psycho-educator and, in other cases, as an informant.”
Mariam Gasparyan, who was displaced in 2023, is now a practicing psychologist working with children aged 3 to 18 and their parents.
“This training coincided with the beginning of my new job in Yerevan. Previously, my work focused more on adults – children were not my primary group. The knowledge, mechanisms and techniques I gained during the training sessions were incredibly helpful, and now I feel confident working with children,”
For Mariam, it was significant that the training took place outside Yerevan, surrounded by nature, which brought back memories of her homeland.
“The self-support groups were particularly important for me. They gave me the chance to talk about my own journey of displacement and process it on a personal level. Equally valuable were the simple steps and tips we reviewed to help prevent professional burnout.”
During the training, in order to ensure continued support, psychologists receive professional supervision in both individual and group formats alongside the retraining sessions. Additionally, self-support groups are available, offering a space for psychologists to share experiences, manage the emotional demands of their work, and access tools to protect themselves from burnout.
“I used to avoid working with loss, but after this programme, I now fully understand how to support a child or individual experiencing it. I know exactly what steps to take to move from point A to point B. I documented the techniques we learned and saved them to ensure I remember what to do at each stage. Lusine, the training psychologist, introduced us to a method called ‘lifeline’. When I applied it with a client, the results were so successful that I was amazed at how effectively you can achieve your goals when you have the right tools,”
